A sensor for the automatic triggering of protective devices for occupants in case of an accident is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,879, CONDNE & MATTES, and corresponding German Patent Application DE-OS 36 04 216. A pendulum with a seismic mass is fastened on a retainer or in a bearing in the center of the interior of the sensor housing The interior chamber is completely filled with a damping fluid. The shape of the interior and the components of the pendulum and of the damping medium have been selected such that the damping medium around the pendulum remains practically completely at rest in the course of rotation of the housing around the attachment point of the pendulum and that friction as a result of the movement of the pendulum in respect to the damping medium results in aperiodic damping of the pendulum.
Electrostatically operated motors, having a rotor seated on a wheel hub and stators arranged in a circle around the rotor, are known from an article by Yu-Chong Tai and Richard S. Muller, entitled "IC-Processed Electrostatic Synchronous Micromotors", published in Sensors and Actuators, 20 (1989), pp. 49 to 55. Methods for the production of such motors in accordance with surface micromechanical techniques, in particular as surface polysilicon structures, are described in this publication.
A microturbine and its production in accordance with Liga [Lithografie, Galvanoformung, Abformung--lithography, electroforming, casting from another cast] technology has been described in an article entitled "Bewegliche Mikrostructuren" [Movable Microstructures] in etz, Vol. 111 (1990), Issue No. 20, p. 1080.